Mali to receive AfDB loan for IT complex

Mali is to receive a $22.5 million (£14 million) loan to build a technology complex in Bamako, the country's capital.

The funding was approved by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and will help the country to boost the population's IT skills, enhance ICT-focused public-private partnerships and create fibre optic connections to six of its seven neighbouring nations.

The complex will be the first project of its type to get underway in West Africa, with Mali's minister of posts and new technologies Modibo Ibrahim Toure stating: "It's a project of tomorrow; it's a project of the future."

Other financial backers of the Bamako Digital Complex - which will consist of training, data and convention centres - include the French Development Agency and Mali's government.

Work on the project is set to begin early next year. Currently, there is no organisation in Mali that can meet the IT training needs expected to be fulfilled by the Bamako Digital Complex.